


No One is Perfect

by TheLittlestGiftGiver (Superellysan)



Series: Prompt Drabble Collection [3]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Eye Injury, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mission Gone Wrong, Sad kid gets some life advice from world's most jaded swordsman, Semi-graphic depiction of gore, missing arm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 18:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14753804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superellysan/pseuds/TheLittlestGiftGiver
Summary: No one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, but when you're a maverick hunter those mistakes can cause a lot of damage. Axl learns that the hard way, and Zero's left to try and comfort him after what has been his worst failure yet.





	No One is Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "No one is perfect", Zero and Axl  
> -gasps- Another drabble!  
> Axl's a bit more somber in this than his character usually is, but given the casualty rate he has a pretty good reason to be.  
> Anyway, enjoy~

The Lifesavers madly dashed around the teleporters, carrying away hunters and reploids in droves on their gurneys and rolling tables. The injureds’ screams of pain echoed around the hub walls as the navigators watched on in horror.  
500 had been taken captive by the mavericks. 500 that they’d had to save.

100 came back. Of that, only 3 came back unscathed, maybe 20 not in critical condition.

Zero glanced over at the young hunter who’d been put in charge of the rescue mission, pressed against a wall and clutching at a stump where his arm used to be, trying to make himself as small as possible. This hadn’t been his first espionage mission, nor probably his most challenging in the days since he’d been activated. He’d probably gone into more hostile areas as a mercenary and come off clean, and he’d certainly done that since becoming an A-rank hunter. But this had been his most important, the one with the most lives at stake so far.

Zero walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t even look up.

“I failed.”

“You came back. That’s what matters,” Zero replied, curling his fingers around his friend’s hand and tentatively pulling it back.  
It came away rust colored, the wound it was guarding sparking with torn wires and dripping coolant. Not a clean wound, so not a clean shot; it had been ripped off.  
“You need to get this looked at by Lifesaver. At least get it soldered close for now.”

“It was such a stupid mistake,” the kid sobbed. “I shouldn’t have…. how could I have forgotten….”

“Axl.”

The young hunter’s gaze shot up to him, and Zero inhaled sharply as he realized one of his eyes was missing, the socket around where it should have been dented and cracking. Axl’s hand shook violently within his own, and he let go of Axl’s shoulder, cupping his cheek to get a better view of the injury. Gingerly, he pulled back on the synthskin around it, and was relieved to see that the kid’s skull wasn’t cracked deeply enough to damage his internal processors.

Axl glanced away, his hand curling tightly around Zero’s. Another sob escaped his throat.

“I failed. I…”

“No one is perfect, kid,” Zero consoled, gently taking Axl’s shoulder again and slowly steering him away from the wall. “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

“Not like this,” Axl muttered, his feet dragging on the linoleum floor. “Not when…”

His voice petered out, and Zero shuffled him into an emergency side room long turned medical storage closet, coaxing him into sitting on a wooden crate before rummaging around for a torch.

Axl took notice. “What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for a welding torch,” Zero replied, knocking a few suturing needles aside and pulling one out of a box. “I’m no Lifesaver, but I _have_ been trained in field repairs. I can do a simple soldering job.”

Axl didn’t reply, and Zero looked up to see him staring away from him, eyes trained on a nearby wall as his quiet sobs hiccuped up his throat. He flicked the torch to ignition, carrying it over to the young hunter and motioning for his stump. Axl obliged silently, hissing as the torch touched upon a nerve.  
Zero frowned. “You haven’t shut down the nerves in your arm yet?”  
Axl shook his head, his eyes never leaving the wall. Zero sighed as he continued on with his soldering, ignoring the hissing noises Axl made as the flame melted shut each vein and wire.

After a minute it was done, and Zero leaned back from the wound and sat himself down on the floor, next to his friend’s feet. Axl wasn’t sobbing anymore, but Zero could tell he was still shaking. A sigh escaped his lips.

“No one is perfect, Axl. Not you, not me, not X or Alia or even Signas. Not anyone.”

Axl laughed bitterly. “Not you? In all my time here, I’ve _never_ seen you fail a mission. Not once.”

“And technically, I never have,” Zero replied, reclining against the wooden crate. “But there’s more ways to make mistakes than just failing a mission.”

“Oh yeah?” Axl replied, disbelief coloring his voice. “How so?”

“…. You probably weren’t alive when it happened, but….. Have you ever heard of the Repliforce incident?”

Axl looked at him then, some kind of hazy understanding dawning in his eyes.

Zero continued.

“That was my biggest mistake. It’s the Hunters biggest mistake, too, though not a single mission from that time was classified a failure.”

He sighed, closing his eyes as the memories came rushing back. “A lot of good people died because of our rashness… An entire organization, wiped out in less than a month’s time… A lot of my friends, a lot of innocents, killed for the sake of pride…”

He swallowed.

“… And it was my fault.”

His eyes opened to see a shocked green one staring down into them. The shock faded to pensive questioning as it soaked in the sorrow and guilt within him.

“I don’t understand,” Axl muttered. “How was it your fault?”

Zero closed his eyes again, fighting down the knot of remorse bubbling in his chest. “Because I was bullheaded, so arrogant and prideful that I leapt at the chance to fight and didn’t listen to anyone telling me to stop. Never stopped to think if what I was doing was right, only charging ahead blindly believing that the people I cut down deserved to be cut down, that I was the righteous one and it…..”

A shaky breath escaped him, and he hung his head in shame.

“…. There could have been peace.”

“What?”

“There could have been… X, he was trying to talk with them. With General. He was trying to be the diplomat, trying to stop the massacre before it began and he almost did because General _listened_. He actually listened and their talks would have stopped it all if…..”

“…If I had just stopped. If I hadn’t had been so stupid.”

Stunned silence hung in the air as he composed his thoughts.

“I… I instigated fights. Me and X, we were the lead examples of the hunters, the ones everyone looked to and watched and god I tried to ignore that before but if I had just…. My actions didn’t match X’s words. The peace talks fell apart because of me. Because of me, X was forced to fight, countless innocents died, and I lost people important to me on both sides. I lost half my squadron, lost Colonel, lost….”

“…. She’d begged me to stop…. And I….”

The words hung in the air, unfinished, and Zero nearly jumped as he felt a hand come down on his shoulder. Looking to the side, he saw Axl kneeling next to him, his one eye gleaming with sympathy.  
“Zero, I… I’m so sorry that…”  
The crimson hunter stared at him a second, before letting out a mirthless laugh.  
“It’s in the past, kid. Nothing can be done about it now.”

Zero stood, offering Axl his hand and helping him to his feet. “But you get it, don’t you?”  
Axl sighed. “Yeah yeah, I get it. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s just…” The young hunter stared out towards the closed door, where the sound of rolling gurneys could faintly be heard still.  
Zero gave him a somber smile. “Yeah, I know. It doesn’t make it any easier, but listen. You saved them.”

The former mercenary looked back at him, his one eye questioning.  
“Listen, kid,” the crimson hunter continued, “You may not have saved all of them, but because of you some of them will live, and sometimes some is the best we can do.”

Axl glanced back at the door. “’Some’ isn’t enough.”  
Zero sighed. “It never is to us, but to those ‘some’ it will be. If you hadn’t of risked your life to save them, none of them would be alive right now.”  
The young hunter was silent a few moments. “… I guess you’re right.”

Zero patted him briskly on the back, shouting “Damn right I’m right!” and getting a small chuckle out of his battered comrade.

Suddenly, the door in front of them slid open, revealing X with a data pad in his hands.  
“There you guys are! Axl, we-“ X began, before seeing Axl’s wounds. His data pad clattered to the ground as he dashed in, immediately checking over his injuries. “Are you okay!? Why haven’t you gotten these seen to yet!?”  
Axl staggered backwards awkwardly, stammering out excuses. “X! I um… you see, it’s not… uh…”  
Zero pulled his worried blue friend off their youngest companion, laughing as he did. “The kid’s fine, X, don’t worry.”  
X clumsy teetered in Zero’s grip, his expression exasperated and still slightly apprehensive. “… If you say so, Z. Anyway,”  
Finally freed, X turned back to the young injured hunter and fixed him with a gaze he was famous for, one full of genuine care and relief so palpable it was like getting hit by a brick but in a nice way. “I’m glad you’re alright, Axl.”  
Zero held back a snort as he watched Axl blank for a moment before stammering out, “T-thanks, X…”  
“I mean that, Axl,” X continued, “I’m glad you came back to us alive.”

X glanced around the room, his eyes settling on a pair of pliers and some polish and gauze. “Hey, let me get a look at that eye. I may be able to do something about it. Help mitigate the damage.”

“And while you do that,” Zero interrupted, already heading towards the door, “I’ll let command know what’s going on and fill them in on the dirty stuff.”

“Thanks, Zero,” X replied, tools already in hand.

As Zero walked out, he gave one last look back and caught sight of Axl sitting on the wooden crate again and X leaning over him with pliers and a rag.

Axl shot him a grateful glance before the door slid shut, and he grinned wistfully back before heading towards the command room.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my friend Yink (who doesn't have an Ao3 account so no gifting this time) for the request, and I hope y'all enjoyed reading it!  
> Fun fact: she literally suggested this to me to challenge me and to help me grow as a writer, and that is one of the reasons why she is a blessing <3 (There are like a shitton more, I assure you)  
> Leave a kudos and a comment, if ya like. I see, read, and appreciate all of them♡♡♡  
> Have a wonderful day, and until next time! :>


End file.
